Mid-Autumn Birds

September had not been the best birding month so far, with very little rarities turning up other than the regular annual migrants. That being said, it is still interesting to see different migrants moving through, and getting different set of birds on a daily basis. The best bird for me this month so far was probably a Von Schrenk's Bittern Hoiling and I stumbled across while we were walking at Shing Mun Reservoir, it was sitting by the forested stream when I flushed it, luckily it didn't go very far and I relocated it hiding behind a tree trunk. Funnily enough I was actually looking for the Slaty-backed Forktail while I was there, but they never showed for me that day. There weren't that many forest birds around, although a few Yellow-cheeked Tits gave quite good views.

Von Schrenk's Bittern

Yellow-cheeked Tit - male

Another interesting species was the Bright-capped Cisticola, I found a few by a hill side near Tsim Bei Tsui, they were in-between their breeding and wintering plumage, while it doesn't have that bright yellow head no more, it doesn't look as dark or have the long tail yet. For such a skulking species I was surprise to found this one perched high up on a wire singing loudly.

Bright-capped Cisticola

Ho Man Tin had not been particularly kind to me this autumn, although I saw yet another Yellow-rumped Flycatcher it never stopped for a photo, I was however greeted by a whole bunch of Asian Brown Flycatchers. Other birders had been more lucky with Siberian Blue Robins and Tiger Shrikes. Arctic Warblers are extremely common during this time of year, you can hardly go anywhere without seeing one.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Arctic Warbler

San Tin had been quite productive, on my two visits I yielded a few Pallas's Grasshopper Warblers (no photo) and a fly over Daurian Starling (no photo). A drained fish pond became a gathering point for various birds, including egrets and herons. One of the better bird there was a very showy Pin-tailed / Swinhoe's Snipe, I was hoping it may fan out it's tail for me to see, unfortunately it didn't, so I have to leave the ID at that. There were also plenty of Black-winged Stilts around.

Assorted egrets...

'Swintail' Snipe

Black-winged Stilt

Whiskered Terns had returned, most were either juveniles or already moulted into their winter plumage. Kingfishers are always nice to see, and at San Tin you often see up to three species, the Common Kingfisher being the most colourful but smallest of the trio, the White-throated Kingfisher with it's impressive red bill, and finally the hovering specialist Pied Kingfisher.

Whiskered Tern

Common Kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

At Mai Po, there were plenty of bird movement, including an increase in Black Drongos. Another bird returning back for winter is the Black-winged Cuckooshrike, a species that is always delightful to see.

Black Drongo

Black-winged Cuckooshrike - female

A few Garganeys had returned, as well as the first of the wintering Great Cormorants, returning to their wintering roost once again. I also spotted a distant Eastern Marsh Harrier, I was hoping it may fly closer to the bird hide, but it only drifted past and never returned.

Great Cormorant

Eastern Marsh Harrier - junvenile

I saw a juvenile Purple Heron at close range, a species that does breed in Mai Po, although in fairly small numbers, I certainly hope they had a successful breeding season this year. Once species that I know have had a good breeding season was the Little Grebe, I saw plenty of juveniles this year, so this adult can finally get a good rest over winter.

Purple Heron - juvenile

Little Grebe